
No one expected JoJo Siwa to be a playable character since she's not even a Nicktoon, but a real life celebrity, especially over more prominent Nickelodeon characters such as Jimmy Neutron, Timmy Turner, or Jenny Wakeman (especially since the former two were playable in Winner's Cup Racing and Nitro).
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While still not considered great by any means, the second game tightens up the first game's controls and offers a much larger variety of characters, tracks and modes to play with. So Okay, It's Average: The second game is considered better than the first for its greater variety of characters, better track design and online play, but still isn't considered to be on the level of other racers like Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled due to flaws like the lack of voice acting. No Problem with Licensed Games: While the game isn't near Crash Team Racing or Mario Kart 8, it seems to be a decent enough racer with a lot of the flaws of the original ironed out except for the lack of voice acting. Just Here for Godzilla: Some players became interested in the game for its inclusion of characters from older series like CatDog, Rocko, Heffer, Ren, Stimpy, Danny, Aang, Zim and GIR. It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: While most of the original game's flaws were addressed, players were disappointed that the second game still doesn't have any voice acting despite the lack of such being a common criticism of the original. Author's Saving Throw: More than doubling the first game's extremely paltry roster, including characters from shows not represented in the original, such as The Loud House and Invader Zim, as well as including many new features helped to inspire faith in the sequel. Tropes for Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix: Unexpected Character: While Tommy and Angelica were obvious choices for playable Rugrats representation, not many expected Reptar to make the cut as well, and over more prominent characters like Chuckie (who wouldn't be added until the game's sequel), Phil, Lil, or Kimi to boot note Phil and Lil do make a cameo in one of the Rugrats tracks.
Uncanny Valley: Due to their models possessing overly large pupils and very Limited Animation, the SpongeBob, Rugrats, and Hey Arnold! characters look pretty off compared to the very expressive TMNT characters.